Creating Secure Attachment in Teens: Balancing Interdependence & Autonomy

CPD

Speaker

Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC Related seminars and products

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Dr. Christina Reese, LCPC, has been working with children and their families for over 20 years and uses play therapy, art therapy and cognitive behavior therapies to help families solve problems. She has been the director of an outpatient mental health clinic and has worked in private practice, as a court ordered therapist and in residential treatment centers. She works with a variety of diagnoses from ADHD to Oppositional Defiant Behavior, bipolar and mood disorders, and attachment disorders. She has her PhD in counselor education from George Washington University and is a licensed clinical supervisor. She has written six books on trauma and attachment and presented over one thousand hours of instruction on those topics.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Christina Reese maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Sheppard Pratt Health System. She receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Reese receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Christina Reese has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Recognize how maladaptive attachment impacts clients’ connections and exacerbates mental health symptoms including anxiety, depression, opposition, defiance and mood stability.
2. Determine the risk factors of developing insecure attachment: parental substance misuse or abuse, a mental health diagnosis in the parent or child, a child with a history of abuse or neglect, and more.
3. Distinguish attachment patterns that are healthy versus those that are rooted in trauma.
4. Demonstrate strategies to meet physical, emotional and mental needs to build attunement.

Outline

The Art of Compromise

• Parents Promoting Interdependence – Being the Safe Place and Secure Base
  • Recognizing when Attachment with Parents has been Impacted by Trauma
  • Relationship between Attachment and Mental Health
• Avoiding Attachment Ruptures
  • Encouraging interdependence and autonomy
  • Understanding needs
• Exploring and Expanding Peer Relationships
  • Healthy and positive attachments
  • Compromise and other social skills

Power Sharing, not Power Struggling

• Timeline for Success
  • Parents moving into the consultant role
  • Teens earning freedom by being responsible and earning trust
  • Teaching recovery and problem solving

Target Audience

• Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Counselors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Educators
• Other Mental Health Professionals
• Occupational Therapists